I've pointed out to my friends at Lucianne.com many times over the years the incredible incompetence of this Republican administration. A few years ago I would say...hey...Iraq...this is going to happen, or that is going to happen. My friends at Lucianne would say...no...you can't say that, nobody can know that, it's all going to come up roses. The same with the economic policies of this Republican administration. I'd point out major problems arising from the flawed political philosophy of the Republican Party, embodied in one Gee Dubya Bush. So much has come true, is coming true and continues to come true. I was once kind of alone in the blogosphere suggesting that the Dubya might not be as competent as he thinks he is...now it is a cacaphony...there is so much being said that it is difficult to keep up with the postings.
So I look for articles that provide a kind of synopsis of our unfortunate years in Republican ascendency, so that all can see just how bad it all really can get...breathtaking incompetence married with breathaking arrogance...it is trully amazing.
Why just the other day Dubya sold India nuclear technology and advanced weapons, not to mention more good deals for outsourcing American jobs abroad...and for what? For MANGOES.
James Klurfeld as written a nice article for NEWSDAY that kinda sums up just how wrong my friends at Lucianne.com have been all these years...and really how wrong has been every Republican that ever cast a vote for Dubya.
Here's the article:
Published on Friday, March 3, 2006 by the Long Island, New York Newsday |
The Bungling Bush Presidency is Falling Apart |
by James Klurfeld |
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"An old acquaintance in Washington - a former member of Republican administrations whose foreign policy views are decidedly hard-line - recently had this to say to a friend about the Bush administration: This might be the most inept administration in American history.
Considering some of the bozos who have served in the White House - James Buchanan and Warren Harding are two names that come to mind - that is a breathtaking statement. Considering the stakes involved with the United States, the most powerful nation in the world, it is also frightening.
But it should come as no surprise that President George W. Bush has fallen to an approval rating of 34 percent in a recent national poll. Just look at the events in this winter of his discontent:
Iraq appears to be on the cusp of a civil war even as U.S. soldiers continue to be killed each week.
A just-released tape shows Bush was warned before Hurricane Katrina that New Orleans' levees could be breached and the city devastated. The president, as we all remember, said he was taken by surprise.
Members of his own party have turned against him on the issues of whether a company owned by the United Arab Emirates should control six major ports in the United States.
As more and more information leaks out about the unauthorized and very likely illegal eavesdropping by the National Security Administration, there is more talk - only whispered at the moment - that there ought to be an impeachment inquiry into Bush's behavior.
While I've not been a big fan of most of Bush's policies, I have occasionally marveled at his decisiveness and willingness to take bold stances. Bush has proved to be a much stronger leader than I ever could have anticipated, especially given the lack of any electoral mandate from the American people.
But I fear we are now seeing the other side of the coin with Bush. His lack of historical perspective, his crusading religiousness, his Texas-style shoot-first-ask-questions-later approach to complex problems - that is, all the shortcomings that were obvious from the beginning of his presidency - seem to be catching up with him now. It's one thing to be a decisive leader. It is quite another to be consistently making the wrong decisions.
The tape of him being briefed on Katrina by Federal Emergency Management Agency officials is particularly damning. It's a glimpse of the man without his eloquent speechwriter, Michael Gerson, putting words into his mouth. Bush doesn't ask a single question about the government's level of preparedness even while being told how concerned officials are. He manages only the most cliched assurance that the government is prepared to do whatever will be necessary. Not only was that not true, but when the finger-pointing started, Bush said he was surprised by the storm's impact.
In short, Bush was not only unprepared; he seemed to be detached from what was happening and then, worst of all, lied about it. That 34 percent approval rating was registered before the Katrina tape came out.
The White House said not to make too much of the tape because it doesn't reflect the totality of the president's effort on the storm. Fair enough. But over the past six months Bush has failed to react to the devastation in New Orleans except for one stage-managed speech from the French Quarter.
This is a presidency coming unraveled before our eyes. It is not a pretty sight, and it is not good for the country. What a difference a year makes. After his re-election, Bush said that he would use his political capital.
Soon he won't have any left. Then what?" |
8:16:35 PM
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